1920s
- 1927–1928 Emil Jannings - The Last Command as Gen. Dolgorucki / Grand Duke Sergius Alexander and The Way of All Flesh as August Schilling
- 1928–1929 Warner Baxter - In Old Arizona as The Cisco Kid
1930s
- 1929–1930 George Arliss - Disraeli as Benjamin Disraeli
- 1930–1931 Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul as Stephen Ashe
- 1931–1932 Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as Dr. Henry L. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde and Wallace Beery - The Champ as Champ (tie)
- 1932–1933 Charles Laughton - The Private Life of Henry VIII as King Henry VIII
- 1934 Clark Gable - It Happened One Night as Peter Warne
- 1935 Victor McLaglen - The Informer as Gypo Nolan
- 1936 Paul Muni - The Story of Louis Pasteur as Louis Pasteur
- 1937 Spencer Tracy - Captains Courageous as Manuel
- 1938 Spencer Tracy - Boys Town as Father Flanagan
- 1939 Robert Donat - Goodbye, Mr. Chips as Mr. Chips
1940s
- 1940 James Stewart - The Philadelphia Story as Macaulay Connor
- 1941 Gary Cooper - Sergeant York as Alvin Cullum York
- 1942 James Cagney - Yankee Doodle Dandy as George M. Cohan
- 1943 Paul Lukas - Watch on the Rhine as Kurt Muller
- 1944 Bing Crosby - Going My Way as Father Chuck O’Malley
- 1945 Ray Milland - The Lost Weekend as Don Birnam
- 1946 Fredric March - The Best Years of Our Lives as Al Stephenson
- 1947 Ronald Colman - A Double Life as Anthony John
- 1948 Laurence Olivier - Hamlet as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
- 1949 Broderick Crawford - All the King’s Men as Willie Stark
1950s
- 1950 José Ferrer - Cyrano de Bergerac as Cyrano de Bergerac
- 1951 Humphrey Bogart - The African Queen as Charlie Allnut
- 1952 Gary Cooper - High Noon as Marshal Will Kane
- 1953 William Holden - Stalag 17 as Sgt. J.J. Sefton
- 1954 Marlon Brando - On the Waterfront as Terry Malloy
- 1955 Ernest Borgnine - Marty as Marty Piletti
- 1956 Yul Brynner - The King and I as King Mongkut of Siam
- 1957 Alec Guinness - The Bridge on the River Kwai as Col. Nicholson
- 1958 David Niven - Separate Tables as Major Angus Pollock
- 1959 Charlton Heston - Ben-Hur as Judah Ben-Hur
1960s
- 1960 Burt Lancaster - Elmer Gantry as Elmer Gantry
- 1961 Maximilian Schell - Judgment at Nuremberg as Hans Rolfe
- 1962 Gregory Peck - To Kill a Mockingbird as Atticus Finch
- 1963 Sidney Poitier - Lilies of the Field as Homer Smith
- 1964 Rex Harrison - My Fair Lady as Professor Henry Higgins
- 1965 Lee Marvin - Cat Ballou as Kid Shelleen / Tim Strawn
- 1966 Paul Scofield - A Man for All Seasons as Sir Thomas More
- 1967 Rod Steiger - In the Heat of the Night as Police Chief Bill Gillespie
- 1968 Cliff Robertson - Charly as Charly Gordon
- 1969 John Wayne - True Grit as Marshal Reuben J. ‘Rooster’ Cogburn
1970s
- 1970 George C. Scott - Patton as Gen. George S. Patton Jr. (declined)
- 1971 Gene Hackman - The French Connection as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle
- 1972 Marlon Brando - The Godfather as Don Vito Corleone (declined)
- 1973 Jack Lemmon - Save the Tiger as Harry Stoner
- 1974 Art Carney - Harry and Tonto as Harry Coombes
- 1975 Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as R.P. McMurphy
- 1976 Peter Finch - Network as Howard Beale (posthumous win)
- 1977 Richard Dreyfuss - The Goodbye Girl as Elliot Garfield
- 1978 Jon Voight - Coming Home as Luke Martin
- 1979 Dustin Hoffman - Kramer vs. Kramer as Ted Kramer
1980s
- 1980 Robert De Niro - Raging Bull as Jake LaMotta
- 1981 Henry Fonda - On Golden Pond as Norman Thayer
- 1982 Ben Kingsley - Gandhi as Mahatma Gandhi
- 1983 Robert Duvall - Tender Mercies as Mac Sledge
- 1984 F. Murray Abraham - Amadeus as Antonio Salieri
- 1985 William Hurt - Kiss of the Spider Woman as Luis Molina
- 1986 Paul Newman - The Color of Money as Fast Eddie Felson
- 1987 Michael Douglas - Wall Street as Gordon Gekko
- 1988 Dustin Hoffman - Rain Man as Raymond Babbitt
- 1989 Daniel Day-Lewis - My Left Foot as Christy Brown
1990s
- 1990 Jeremy Irons - Reversal of Fortune as Claus von Bülow
- 1991 Anthony Hopkins - The Silence of the Lambs as Dr. Hannibal Lecter
- 1992 Al Pacino - Scent of a Woman as Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade
- 1993 Tom Hanks - Philadelphia as Andrew Beckett
- 1994 Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump as Forrest Gump
- 1995 Nicolas Cage - Leaving Las Vegas as Ben Sanderson
- 1996 Geoffrey Rush - Shine as David Helfgott
- 1997 Jack Nicholson - As Good as It Gets as Melvin Udall
- 1998 Roberto Benigni - Life Is Beautiful as Guido Orefice
- 1999 Kevin Spacey - American Beauty as Lester Burnham
2000s
- 2000 Russell Crowe - Gladiator as Maximus Decimus Meridius
- 2001 Denzel Washington - Training Day as Alonzo Harris
- 2002 Adrien Brody - The Pianist as Wladyslaw Szpilman
- 2003 Sean Penn - Mystic River as Jimmy Markum
- 2004 Jamie Foxx - Ray as Ray Charles
- 2005 Philip Seymour Hoffman - Capote as Truman Capote
- 2006 Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland as Idi Amin
- 2007 Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood as Daniel Plainview
- 2008 Sean Penn - Milk
